A shipping label may be affixed to a shipping carton to provide information such as the recipient's name and address to facilitate delivery of the carton by the post office or a delivery service. Commercially available shipping labels are generally intended to be used only once for delivery of the carton from a sender to a recipient. If the recipient wishes to return the carton and its contents to the sender, he or she must take the additional steps of replacing the original label on the carton with a new label or otherwise marking the carton to indicate the new delivery address to prepare the carton for delivery. If the new address is somehow incorrectly or incompletely marked on the carton, the carton may become lost or its delivery may be delayed.
One object of the present invention is to provide a shipping label that can be used both by an original shipper to send a carton to a recipient and by the recipient to return the carton to the shipper wherein a pre-addressed label is provided on the carton for the return delivery to the shipper.
Another object of the invention is to provide a shipping label capable of receiving laser imaged bar codes or other optically scannable markings thereon to facilitate outgoing shipment tabulation and return shipment reconciliation.
Another object of the invention is to provide a label including an advisory postcard that may be detached from the label and sent separately to the original shipper to indicate a return of the shipment.